Sensex Boom

BSE, originally uploaded by Jeevan_.

Creating history of sorts, the Bombay Stock Exchange 30-share Sensex on Thursday raced past the 8050-mark to hit a new peak of 8060 on frenzied all-round buying support with foreign institutional investors playing a pivotal role in a buoyant market, which is poised for further gains.

Bolstered by ample liquidity, the benchmark 30-share index (Sensex) scaled a new intra-trade record high of 8060.26 before ending the day at a new closing peak of 8052.56, a net rise of 105.78 points or 1.33 per cent over Tuesday's close of 7946.78. The Sensex covered the 1000-point journey in a short span of 55 trading days, riding high on aggressive purchases by FIIs from June onwards. It had reached the 7000 mark on June 20.

According to a leading stockbroker, the market is fundamentally strong and can rally further if it closed above the magic 8000 level for two continued trading sessions. However, another brokerage house chief said though the valuations were slightly stretched and needed to be cautious in the short-term, the bull phase in the long-term could be sustainable. Meanwhile, the Union Finance Minister, P. Chidambaram, endorsed the rally saying that the Sensex rise was not a cause for worry or concern and market movements were orderly.

Global oil prices also fell below $65 a barrel level a further plus point for the upbeat sentiment. The FIIs reportedly were extending their long positions in futures while making fresh purchases in cash. They have reported net investments of over Rs. 800 crore in September so far. Operators and private mutual funds also were believed to be heavy buyers in select stocks, which promise high returns at the prevailing price levels.

Heavyweights such as HDFC, RIL, Infosys Technologies, ICICI Bank, Bajaj Auto, BHEL, Grasim, Tata Motors, ONGC, Bharti Tele-Ventures and L&T scored impressive gains.